Remembering Rune Mields, Onai Quiñonez, and Song Burnsoo
This week, we honor a German artist who plumbed the depths of geometry, a Venezuelan painter, and a Korean museum director and printmaker.
In Memoriam is published every Wednesday afternoon and honors those we recently lost in the art world.
Rune Mields (1935–2026)
German conceptual artist
Rife with geometric forms, musical notes, and monochromatic grids, Mields's body of work lingers in the space between order and expression. The self-taught artist spent five decades nurturing her interest in mathematics, ornamentation, and symbols across diagrammatic paintings and drawings. Her boundless creative energy even extended to her own gravestone at the Artists' Necropolis in Kassel, which she designed in 1992 and titled "La vita corre, come rivo fluente" (Life flows, like a fluctuating river).
Bae Young-whan (1969–2026)
South Korean contemporary artist
Bae, who represented South Korea at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, was known for his inventive use of materials, including cotton, glass bottles, turntables, flower petals, and even lyrics from K-Pop songs released during the 1980s pro-democracy movement — a major focus of his practice. His work has been exhibited at the New Museum, the Seoul Museum of Art, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, among others.
Julia Jones Daniels (1931–2026)
North Carolina art and museum philanthropist
Daniels was a cornerstone figure in the art and culture ecosystem of Raleigh, along with her late husband, the newspaper publisher Frank Daniels Jr. Dubbed a "professional volunteer," she played a key leadership role at institutions such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the North Carolina Museum of Art, where she helped fund the steel tree sculpture that now stands at its entrance.
Brian McFeely (1977–2026)
Scottish street artist
The Edinburgh-based street artist and musician left his mark on bars, public spaces, galleries, and other buildings across the world. His first foray into graffiti over three decades ago brought him into an international network of artists. He completed his last mural in April in Næstved, Denmark.
Mustafa Monwar (1935–2026)
Bangladeshi artist and puppeteer
After the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 displaced millions of people, Monwar brought handmade puppets into refugee camps and staged performances for children. He continued his mission of sparking the imaginations of young people through his 12-year television program, introducing millions of Bangladeshi children to playful puppets who eventually became national symbols of joy and creativity.
Song Burnsoo (1943–2026)
South Korean printmaker and textile artist
A luminary mentor and former director of the Daejeon Museum of Art, Song helped build institutional support for future generations of Korean artists while cultivating his own practice across lithography, textile art, and other media. One of his favorite motifs was a rose and thorn and the shadow they cast — a vehicle for his explorations of symbolism, spirituality, and the Division of Korea.
Clara Straight (1919–2026)
Missouri art professor and watercolorist
The 106-year-old artist captured the natural beauty of Missouri, where she began making art with shoe polish at age three. After decades of travel and teaching, including at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Cornell University, she returned to her hometown of Yarrow to continue her daily watercolor practice.
Onai Quiñonez (1993–2026)
Venezuelan painter
Known for his gestural paintings and visceral still lifes, the Caraballeda-based artist pushed the boundaries of figuration in his work. Inspired by French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Quiñonez explored questions of fragility and empathy in contemporary life by focusing largely on the subject of raw meat. He was killed after two deadly earthquakes hit northern Venezuela on June 24, collapsing the building where he lived. He is survived by his wife, artist Laura Silva, and their dog, Petra.
